stefan_marquardt

hi,

i tried the new astia f (for architectural work)in 4x5 and i am absolutely delighted. the best film I ever used for that purpose.

But now, in the middle of shooting a projekt, I have problems getting the film. I just get 4x5 film but i am waiting since weeks for rollfilm.

they are suposed to get into the shops this week or the next. but i wouldn´t be suprised, if they dont.

stefan (from germany)

hi, just looked up the prices from a mail-order company that I use:

T-max 100 35mmx30,5m 39,90 euros (plus 16%Vat/mwst).

 

regards stefan

"We have a Leaf45 at work as well as a Imacon. The Leaf is a slow (three pass/RGB) and is a large piece of equipment! You shouldn't have to many problems, we have it hooked up to a G4 but are running 9.1 which is less problematic"

 

anno - i found this comment from Scott walton.so I thought it would work?

rehgards stefan

anno, since I am considering bying a leafscan, I searched the net for this question. I found some users that use it on an G3/G4 and O.s. 9.1.

perhabs the leafscan 45 is diffrent to te 35 version ?

regards stefan

 

p.s. would a price of about 200 dollars/euros be a acceptable price for a leafscan 45?

"they can be found pretty cheap, and for the price, I'd say they are a great bargain"

 

anno, that´s what i thougth. specialy compared to the imacon-prices.

btw: yesterday a nice man from imacon phoned me, to ask, if I would like to get a imacon installed and to test it for a week or so! He would bring it, install it, and pick it up after a a week. No wonder they are expensive!

 

regards stefan

Bashir - I find it in teressting to hear your comment on the quality of the agfa duoscan HID. I am very pleased with it´s colors - they are almost allways exactly like the scanned chrome. even the negatives are just right- without hardly any fiddeling. I will not give the agfa away - It´s just that I saw this leafscan 45 for a very good price and thought that it might be a good scanner for 6x6 and 6x9 film.

regards stefan

brian, i am aware of the connection to my pc-problem. not sure if want to go down the pc-connection route. i thougt it might be easier, if i would get an old mac to hook it up to via scsi (not sure about how to get the files over to my pc then?). at the moment i use an agfa duoscan hid - wich is fine for 4x5. but its resolution (1000ppi) is a bilt low for 6x9 i find.

have you used an leafscan yourself?

thanks and regards stefan

hi, i am wondering if a (used) leafscan 45 ist still on good

alternative today to scan 6x9 and 4x5 chrome/negatives?

how would it compare to a modern flatbed or a minolta multi pro?

thanks - regards stefan marquardt

hi,

i use a duoscan hid since some years (architectural photography). the colors and the dmax/density are very good / accurate.

here in germany at least, you got a nice software-bundle and an it8target with the scanner. specially the scanner-profiling-software (agfa color-tune) helps a lot - the colors are almost always right at the preview.

You can get more detail out of almost black areas of the chromes, than you can see with your eyes.

The negative side: it´s 1000 ppi are fine for scanning 4x5inch (=100MB/16bit) - but for medium format it´s a bit small. if i use it at 2000ppi the files look the same, as when you interpolate the file in photoshop (so there seems to be nor real gain in detail).

regards stefan

"This will enable you to use your existing lenses on Digital SLR style camera bodies"

 

... and you´ll get a super crop factor and the best selection of tele-lenses, that you ever had! (for now extra money!!!)

 

regards stefan marquardt

hi gavin,

i used me bronica sqai for years for advertising and commercial photos and never ever had any problems are malfunctions. In years i can only remember one or two times changing the batteries. It was a very reliable and good camera. the lenses seem very good to me. I could not think of one thing that the camera lacks. I am glad I dind´t spend the money on a hasselblad(wich I did consider). sadly since i moves up to 4x5 for architectural work I haven´t used it since some years now - if your are interessted in a used bronica and lenses let me know!.

 

regards stefan (mail@architekturbild.de)

daniel, i use an agfa duoscan myself and scan the 6x6 chromes in the 6x9 holder. just cut each frame and put them in (they dont need to fill the whole area of the 6x9holder). the advantage of the agfas is, that you dont have the glass between the lens and the film. if you think of scanning a whole strip of negative film you end up with far to high a file size. (my duoscan hid scans a 6x5 neg at 2000ppi and leaves me with a 100mb file!

 

stefan

hi,

two tips:

first i spend aged walking around the place with one of those black cardboardthings (wich you one uses to frame the chromes) or most of the time simply forming a frame using my two thumbs and (what is the name of the next finger, the one you ponit to things with?) and use that arrangement to find the best position. clients and others give you funny looks (you can take that oportunity to tell them, that that is all they get for the money they pay!).

next thing: put up the camera an take a polaroid. If I dont like what i see on it - i dont bother wasting a neg or chrome. that schould deal with most of the problems (exoposure, composition, DOF...).

This leaves me with a rate of presentable images to about 70% (the left over 30% being usually views, wich the clients requested).

 

good luck stefan

i do architectural photography as my main business - with an arca swiss 4x5. I check the digital possibilies ones a year or so. at the moment i am considering getting an s2 to created more work on the budget side of the market, where clients only need pics for web or archiev-use (where 4x5 seems an overkill). But my worries are that when i start going into the low-budged market I have to compete with all the low-budget-photographers photographers that offer digital photos for cheap money. and because of using a dslr the pic-quality will go down a lot and I might loose out in the high-end quality market. (you see why a famouse brand is selling the low-end product under a different name/brand).

 

Here in germany all serious architecture work is still done with big cameras.

also: since all the architects i work for have digital cameras themselfes, I find it makes a better impression when you arrive with a huge tripode an a gig camera that looks difficult to operate. There could be the danger when using a digicam, that somebody in an architectural firm with an superduper digicam is going to say, hey i can do those photos to with my camera.

Further: i have no problems charging for film and polaroids..., but explainig a digital capture fee might - architects might not understand.

 

final advice: go for a 4x5 and stick to the high quality.

(you get used drum scanners for 1000 euros these days!)

I am just switching back from provia 100F to astia. they are selling astia near its end-date very cheap here in germany. I just ordered a lot of astia when I heard about the new emulsion coming out propably after the summer.

Considering the price of the colormeter and the filters I am not quite sure if I want to invest that money. I was hoping the new films would make my life/work a bit easier without it.

thanks ellis,

do you use your colormeter when you work with colornegs under mixed light?

(Is there anything I should watch out for, getting a used colometer on ebay?)

stefan

hi,

now I was just about to by myself a colormeter (for architectural

interiors shooting chromes) when I read about the new

fuji-chrome-films with that 4th layer (that you get with their

neg-film since some time).

Does this mean, that you dont need a colormeter any longer to get the

cc´s right?(I am puzzeld - also because I have never actualy worked

with their neg-films)

thanks for your advise - regards stefan marquardt

thanks paul, good tip. I just looked on their webpage because I couldn´t get any info on this meter. that´s because here in germany it is called colormaster 3f.

I also found out, that the company Gossen is actually based just round the corner from me (well, Nürnberg - two hours drive).

stefan

I was thinking of putting the (cut round) lee-filter just on the back of the CF and then screwing the CF in it´s normal place ( the lee-filter tightly sandwiched between the lens glass and the CF). This way it would be held in place by the CF and no need for a filterholder, or any construction in front of the lens. would this not work?

thanks for all your very helpfull answers - I am going to investigate this calumet-filterholder.

I have tried the filters in front of the lens (usually an 47 or 72XL)but had some real problems from those lights just above the camera (as mentioned).

Sometime when I use the 6x9 back on the arca (discovery) I feel the rear end of the 47XL lens is just about touching the gg. I wonder if the filter an the rear of the lens might be in the way (I haven´t seen this calumet-device yet).

 

Would putting the lee-filters between the lens and the centerfilter cause any optical problems?

hi, still trying to find a good solution as to where to put filters on

wide-angle-lenses (which are the lenses I use 90% of the time).

 

has anybody ever tried to cut lee-filters into an disk-shape and put

them between the centerfilter and the lens (so to avoid putting them

in front of the lens, which is not always practical on a 47xl or

72xl-lens)? this way you still have a multicoated front glass and you

dont need any special filter holder. also the filters would be nicely

protectec.

any thoughts?

stefan

are you able to put -for example- a 20 or 30 magenta (or whatever you need) filter over the sensor till you get a 0 reading. or do you allways have to do those hoorid maths (not ever having used a color meter - that´s what using it sounds like to to me)?

stefan

hi all,

so far I allway relied on guessing the right cc-filtration (a bit more

or less magenta) for LF-interior work under fluerescent light. Now I

am wondering if a colormeter would be a good investment?

There are usualy the minolta colormeter II and III on the second hand

market. Is there a big diffents between the two models (is the II good

enough)? Any architectural photographer here with experience?

thanks a lot! stefan marquardt

lots of good points john,

this digital workflow (4x5chrom - scan - retouching -printing) is what I usualy do for my clients. Wich are happy with the extra service they get - and I dont have to worry to much about the color-cast. One click in the scanning-programm and it´s gone. And I feel the quality is better than a bundle of gelatin-filters (I have noticed those ghostings!)on or behind of the lens.

It´s just this new client - who prefers chromes to digital files but then again doesn´t want to pay for material! But that´s the way things seem to go at present.

what do you do with the negs? do you give them to the client, do you make prints to give to the client or do you scan the neg. and hand the file/print? or all the above? I just don´t have any experience with negs (clients always semm to demand chromes). Do they scan as easy as chromes?

I usualy use provia F and a little filtering. but since I quite often use extrem WA-lenses I have problems with where to put the filters. Any filterholder in front of the lens (on top of the CF) is going to show up in the chrom. I tried to put a gel-filter behing the lens and that seemed to work ok. but than I read somewhere that this can reduce the quality a fair bit. plus with all those filters you end up opening the shutter for many minutes and test-polaroids are getting quite useless.